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Entries from January 2016

Possibility of development over the rail tracks downtown arises, while ex-planners group fights for public space there

May 21st, 2015 · 36 Comments

The tussle over the waterfront hub continues. That is the piece of land that sits between the old train station and The Landing, which Cadillac Fairview wants to develop an office tower on. It’s also meant to be the gateway to a new piece of the downtown that the city has envisioned creating by extending […]

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Two top TransLink planners axed

May 8th, 2015 · 137 Comments

News seeping out this afternoon that TransLink called staff to a meeting to say that two top TransLink planners were gone. Both were very experienced people at the top of the heap and doing the actual planning. One, Brian Mills, was director of systems planning and research. The other, Tamim Raad, director of strategic planning […]

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Australia has limits and reporting requirements for foreign ownership of homes. We asked: Is it working?

May 8th, 2015 · 124 Comments

So a little dust storm of media reporting this week, once again, on the foreign ownership issue after UBC geography professor David Ley spoke at a conference last weekend put on by Simon Fraser University’s Urban Studies department. Ley, who has done extensive research on the impact of Canada’s immigrant-investor program and published a book […]

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Towers on top of Vancouver’s two historic post offices? Maybe

May 8th, 2015 · 1 Comment

As downtown office development continues to attract various people, in spite of a building boom that is sure to drive up vacancy rates, two big owners have approached the city about getting extra density for their sites. The sites? Sinclair Centre, home of the 1910 post office in one of its corners, and the 1958 […]

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Vancouver single-family homeowners cash in — sometimes — when city plans change

May 4th, 2015 · 7 Comments

Got to tackle the land-assembly craze that people have been noticing around the city lately, as signs have sprouted all all over the place with whole blocks for sale. As any number of land-assembly specialists told me, this is all about people stampeding to redevelop when a community plan changes to allow for more density. […]

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